Money, Wealth & Power—A Daily Look at the Financial World
Los Angeles is already one of the most expensive rental markets in the United States, and a new ceiling on rent hikes risks tightening the screws on both tenants and landlords. By sharply limiting how much owners can raise prices each year, the policy aims to deliver stability for renters but could instead choke off…
First-time buyers are being squeezed out of the housing market as prices climb faster than incomes and borrowing costs stay stubbornly high. The share of newcomers able to get a foot on the ladder has dropped to its lowest level on record, even as demand for homes has not meaningfully eased. I see a market…
Families who thought they were stretching to afford a mortgage or rent are discovering that the real financial strain comes from everything wrapped around that payment. Insurance, utilities, maintenance and fees are quietly stacking up, turning what looked like a manageable housing budget into a monthly squeeze. I see a pattern in the latest data…
San Francisco’s hotel market is now producing the kind of price tags usually reserved for distressed malls and failed office parks, with marquee properties changing hands at roughly a quarter of what they fetched less than a decade ago. The steep markdowns capture a broader reset in a downtown that has struggled to bring back…
Tesla’s blistering rebound has finally started to lose steam, and the stock’s latest pullback is forcing investors to reassess whether the easy money has already been made. After a year defined by sharp rallies, equally sharp corrections, and fierce debate over valuation, the question now is not whether Tesla can grow, but whether the current…
Housing markets that looked unstoppable during the pandemic are now revealing cracks, and some are entering 2026 on especially shaky ground. I focus here on 20 cities repeatedly flagged in recent reporting as vulnerable to corrections or even crashes, highlighting why each market is at risk and what that means for buyers, sellers, and investors…
Used electric cars are shedding value at a pace that would rattle any owner who expected their battery-powered hatchback to behave like a traditional family sedan. The headline numbers are stark: multiple analyses now show electric vehicles depreciating significantly faster than comparable petrol models, turning what looked like a smart, future-proof purchase into a surprisingly…
Jalen Hurts can afford a mansion with a home theater, a three-car garage and a backyard the size of a practice field. Instead, the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback is paying about $2,000 a month to rent an apartment just outside the city, a choice that turns a routine housing decision into a clear statement about how…
In the highest reaches of the housing market, the benchmark for a “trophy” property has quietly shifted upward, with price tags that once seemed outlandish now appearing almost routine. I see the $200 million mark functioning less as an outlier and more as the new psychological line of scrimmage for ultra-luxury homes, especially in a…
Insurance, once a predictable line item in New York City building budgets, has turned into a volatile cost that is reshaping the economics of rent stabilized housing. Landlords who operate on thin margins to keep regulated apartments habitable now face premium spikes that outpace rent increases and routine operating costs. The result is a mounting…